Debates of Nov. 20th, 2013

Ethics

[Stephen Harper, Conservative, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, let me be very clear. It is right in the documents about what Mr. Wright told the RCMP. He said he told me that Senator Duffy had agreed to repay the money. He told me that he did not inform me of his personal decision to pay that money himself. When I learned of that, I took the appropriate action.

[Thomas Mulcair, NDP, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister keeps trying to hold onto a detail. We are talking about the whole scheme that took place in his office.

On February 22, Nigel Wright wrote, “I do want to speak to the PM before everything is considered final...”. An hour later he wrote, “We are good to go from the PM...”. What did the Prime Minister approve during that hour?

[Stephen Harper, Conservative, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, this is answered right in the RCMP documents. They say that Nigel Wright said the Prime Minister was aware on February 22 that Senator Duffy had agreed to repay the money.

I later learned on May 15 that was not true, and let me tell members what the conclusion of the RCMP is on this. After months of interviews and review of documents, the investigator says he is not aware of any evidence that the Prime Minister was involved in the repayment or reimbursement of money to Senator Duffy or his lawyer. The RCMP could not be clearer on this.

[Thomas Mulcair, NDP, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, “We are good to go”. Good to go with what?

[Stephen Harper, Conservative, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, good to go with Mr. Duffy repaying his own expenses, as he has acknowledged I told him to personally, as he told everybody he had done, including the Canadian public; and when we found that was not true, we took the appropriate action, and he has been appropriately sanctioned by the Senate.

[Thomas Mulcair, NDP, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, on May 28, when the Prime Minister was first questioned about the deal with Mike Duffy, he said that he never gave “any” instruction to his staff on how to handle the Duffy scandal, but we now know from court documents that Nigel Wright went to the Prime Minister for approval of the deal. Why did the Prime Minister say something to Parliament that he knew was not true?

[Stephen Harper, Conservative, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, as I have made clear, I was told that Mr. Duffy was going to repay the money himself, something he announced on national television for everybody. That story proved not to be true. When I learned that it was not true from Mr. Wright, on May 15, we took the appropriate action, and that is why Mr. Wright and Mr. Duffy are now under investigation.

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Papineau, QC]

Mr. Speaker, Canadians deserve leaders who tell the truth.

The RCMP revealed this morning that the Prime Minister's Office was guilty of corruption and that the government had been covering it up for months.

Does the Prime Minister still believe that he bears no responsibility for the corruption in his own office?

[Stephen Harper, Conservative, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, once again, what the RCMP has confirmed in its documents today is that two individuals, Mr. Duffy and Mr. Wright, are under investigation for their actions in this matter and it has also confirmed that this Prime Minister has been telling exactly the truth.

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Papineau, QC]

Mr. Speaker, for months, Canadians across the country have had doubts about what this government has been telling them.

Today, we learned that the Prime Minister did in fact mislead the House. Canadians expect better from their leaders.

Will the Prime Minister take responsibility and agree to testify under oath?

[Stephen Harper, Conservative, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, the RCMP confirmed two things today.

First, it confirmed that Mr. Wright and Mr. Duffy are under investigation in this matter. Second, it found that the Prime Minister told the whole truth in this matter.

[Justin Trudeau, Liberal, Papineau, QC]

Mr. Speaker, when the member for Edmonton—St. Albert said that the Conservative caucus had become what it once mocked, non-answers like that were what he meant. Two weeks ago everyone in the Conservative caucus could have stood up for Canadians and, instead, chose to stand up to help their leader cover up this scandal.

When will the Prime Minister finally put his country ahead of his party and tell Canadians the truth?

[Stephen Harper, Conservative, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, it was only a few sitting days ago that the Senate was asked to pronounce judgment on senators who had behaved inappropriately. Conservative senators voted to sanction to those members. Liberal senators, of course, voted not to do that, voted to protect those senators, which is very consistent with the kind of Communist dictatorship that the member so admires.

[Thomas Mulcair, NDP, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, Nigel Wright said that he went to see the Prime Minister to get his approval. It is written in black and white in the documents the RCMP filed in court.

Is the Prime Minister trying to tell us that Nigel Wright is a liar?

[Stephen Harper, Conservative, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, it is written in black and white that Mr. Wright said that Mr. Duffy was going to repay his own expenses. It was not until later that he decided not to. When I learned of that, I immediately took the appropriate action.

[Thomas Mulcair, NDP, Leader of the Opposition]

Actually, Mr. Speaker, in those documents what Nigel Wright does in fact say is that the Prime Minister knew that he had “personally assisted Mike Duffy with repaying his expenses”.

Did the Prime Minister ask Nigel Wright what personal assistance he had given to Mike Duffy, yes or no?

[Stephen Harper, Conservative, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, once again, the RCMP interviewed Mr. Wright on this question, and he was extremely clear. He said that he did not tell the Prime Minister of his eventual personal decision to pay the $90,000 to Senator Duffy. It could not be clearer from Mr. Wright or from the RCMP. The hon. member should accept it.

[Thomas Mulcair, NDP, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister keeps trying to hang his hat on the detail of the form of that personal assistance. He keeps avoiding the clear question as to whether or not he knew that Nigel Wright had personally assisted Mike Duffy.

Could he tell Canadians what he knew?

[Stephen Harper, Conservative, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, it is in black and white that I did not know. The RCMP confirms it. Unlike the Leader of the Opposition, it did not take it 17 years to figure that out.

[Thomas Mulcair, NDP, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, was the Prime Minister aware of the original plan to pay back Mike Duffy's expenses using Conservative Party money or not?

[Stephen Harper, Conservative, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, from the beginning, my position has been that Mr. Duffy had to pay back his own expenses.

When I learned that that was not what he had done, I took the appropriate action.

[Thomas Mulcair, NDP, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, the Prime Minister and Senator Irving Gerstein have said that the Conservative Party never agreed to repay any of Mike Duffy's expenses.

However, on February 22, Nigel Wright wrote that he had “the go-ahead from Gerstein to tell Mike Duffy” that “there will be an arrangement to keep him whole on the repayment to cover it”.

Is the Prime Minister saying that Nigel Wright was lying about that too?

[Stephen Harper, Conservative, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, what I can say is that Mr. Wright repaid Mr. Duffy's expenses, although the two of them let it be known, to the contrary, that it was Mr. Duffy himself who had repaid his expenses.

That was obviously not the appropriate thing to do. That is why those two individuals have been sanctioned and are under further investigation.

[Thomas Mulcair, NDP, Leader of the Opposition]

Mr. Speaker, yesterday the Prime Minister acknowledged that his chief of staff, Nigel Wright, was under investigation.

The RCMP says that it believes the Prime Minister's chief of staff committed bribery, fraud, and breach of trust. Who else in his office knew? Who else was involved?

[Stephen Harper, Conservative, Prime Minister]

Mr. Speaker, if the Leader of the Opposition wants to cite the RCMP, he would note that it is these two individuals who are under investigation for what was an improper payment, I think something Mr. Wright himself admits.

That is the appropriate thing, that those who undertook these actions be held responsible and accountable.